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Spring - finally!

We had an unusual harsh winter here. First it was warm until mid January, than temperatures dropped sharply. Bees stopped brooding altogether. After a couple of warm spring days, bees recover from the cold spell.

Compared to last year, the same time, there were more bees in the hives last year. Less bees this year. Due to the prolonged winter. The bees did stop brooding during the cold spells, so mostly eggs in the hive. There will be a decline in bees until start of May, the population will build up late, so swarming will be late, too. Start of June or so.

First pollen and brood. Just small patches, lots of eggs though. The queen just started laying just a few days ago, when temperatures rised.

As one can see, no worries about pulling combs for inspections. Simply put the box upside down, loose the sides of the combs with a sharp knife or hive tool, box back into original position and then loose the nail of the topbar and slowly push the topbar left and right, before lifting it. Do not try to lift honey combs just brood combs. Honey combs can be cut out for harvesting if capped.

Re: Spring - finally!

If you use starter strips or other comb guides and do have straight combs (no burr comb), the combs are perfectly removable. No worries. Just don't take out honey combs with bees on it. Honey combs get fixed very solidely, because they are heavy.

Re: Spring - finally!

Re: Spring - finally!

Crazy winter. No frost so far. Not one day. Unusually warm. All trees pushing green leaves, quite a lot of plants are blossoming. Bees have been flying without any pause since last summer. All hives are in full brood mode. I am a bit worried about the amount of food that they use right now.